Murray’s eagerness to put his shoulder back to the wheel is not always typical of the leading players. Last year, the newly crowned Swiss champions might have been expected to field Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in their own first-round match against Belgium, but delivered Henri Laaksonen and Michael Lammer instead.

Federer, in fact, spoke of the Davis Cup as “a heavy burden” which he was glad to have ticked off his list of career goals. Yet his attitude contrasts with that of Murray, who will lead off this first-round match against Japan at 1pm on Friday.

Andy Murray is relishing the beginning of the Davis Cup

For Murray, who relishes the interactivity of team sport, the fraternal spirit of the British players makes this a welcome change from the ATP tour.

“I thought the ties last year were unbelievable,” Murray told reporters in Birmingham. “I enjoyed every one of them, in terms of the atmosphere [which] was great. It was tough at times physically and mentally because of the times of year that the ties were coming, but I think everyone on the team loved that whole experience of winning.

The British team with their Davis Cup trophy

“I think one of the reasons I’m here this year is because I really want to try and do it again, after experiencing it last year,” Murray added. “I mean, why not? I never thought we would be able to do it [last year], but then when we did, I was like ‘Why can’t we do it again?’”

The British and Japanese line-ups were named on Thursday before the draw ceremony. The only eyebrow-raiser was the omission of Kyle Edmund after he had suffered a strained side in practice this week. Instead, British captain Leon Smith has picked the mercurial Dan Evans for a match that will be played only 15 miles or so from his home in Solihull.

Evans happens to have a winning record against Japanese No. 1 Kei Nishikori, whom he ambushed in the first round of the 2013 US Open. We saw peak Evans that week, a serious contender who also took out the Australian No. 1 Bernard Tomic with his trusty backhand slice and graceful Henmanesque volleys.

It’s true that Evans has also endured a few dramatic troughs, notably when his ranking sank to a lamentable No. 772 in the world in May last year, but he has now worked his way back close to the 150 mark. “I just took it match by match and tournament by tournament,” was his uncharacteristically terse response yesterday, when asked about his journey from Futures level back to the fringes of the ATP tour.

Evans will go on for the second match today against Nishikori after Murray has played - and hopefully beaten – Taro Daniel. There may be an element of rust involved in this opening exchange, for Murray’s last match was the Australian Open final on Jan 31. The birth of his daughter Sophia kept him off the court for an entire fortnight, his longest such break since he underwent back surgery at the end of 2013.

Kei Nishikori will take on Andy Murray

Even so, there is little to suggest that Daniel – an avowed Led Zeppelin fan who is excited to be so close to that band’s origins in the West Midlands – has a shot at winning. Ranked at No. 87 on the ladder, he has beaten precious few top-100 players in his career, let alone top-tenners.

Still, Murray was keen yesterday to highlight the dangers of complacency. “I think we would all love to try to do it [win the competition] again,” he said. “But the best way to do that is not thinking that far ahead. We could lose this tie. It’s a really tough match to win, and they have a really good team, so we need to just concentrate on this one. With the help of the crowd, everyone in this team has always performed really well in David Cup. If everyone does that again, we can get through this one, and then who knows what will happen?”